Category: Miles

The Thing

US Bank launched transfer partners on its Altitude Reserve and FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa cards (my hidden gem FlexPerks American Express card sunsetted and became an Altitude Connect Mastercard earlier this year or it’d probably be there too). Initial partners are:

– AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue at 1:1
– Qantas Frequent Flyer at 1:1
– Ethiopian Sheba Rewards at 1:1
– Accor ALL at 2:1

They’re using a landing page at points.com for transfers, which means they’ll likely have access to many more transfer partners in the future.

The Impact

Because this is U.S. Bank where mediocrity is a way of life, this launch turns out to be … mediocre. Here’s some two-day-late Monday morning quarterbacking:

  • Accor ALL points are worth a fixed two eurocents each so that partner is relatively lame at 2:1. With current exchange rates, that’s effectively a fixed 1.15 cents per point
  • Ethiopian Sheba Rewards isn’t common, so let’s chat about it:

    – Ethiopian is part of Star Alliance
    – The Sheba Star Alliance Award chart is decidedly mediocre (to match U.S. Bank)
    – Redemptions on Ethiopian metal are zone based:
    Same zone: 15,000 miles in economy and 45,000 in business
    Two zone: 30,000 miles in economy and 60,000 in business
    Three zone: 🤷‍♀️
    – Ethiopian has 22 fifth-freedom routes (routes between two countries that aren’t Ethiopia). Pricing on these routes can be good
  • Because transfers are handled by points.com, I expect we’ll see more added rapidly after U.S. Bank figures itself out, but I really mean rapidly in U.S. Bank terms which means slowly in regular terms
  • Seats.aero already tracks Ethiopian miles, so the best redemptions are probably going to be rare thanks to the Tragedy of the Commons
  • Oh yeah, they have Qantas and FlyingBlue transfers too. Welcome to every other bank and FinTech on the planet I guess

The tl;dr: Some partners are better than none, but in this case not that much.

Happy Wednesday!

U.S. Bank transfer partner launch celebration swag.

  1. The Huntington Bank Business Voice credit card has an increased sign-up bonus of $700 after $5,000 spend in 90 days through September 14, but only in branch. The cards is relatively noteworthy for its quarterly 4% cash back on $7,000 spend in categories like grocery stores and gas. (Thanks to Mushu_Pork)
  2. AT&T and AA have a promotion for 20,000 AA miles with a phone number port-in, limit four. To maximize the promotion, you’ll need to keep AT&T service for three months. At $140 per month and a total of 80,000 miles, you’re effectively buying AAdvantage miles at 0.7 cents each.

    Mileage valuations for AA will probably range between 1.5 cents each to 8.0 cents each (for sites that share an acronym with Two Putting Greens), either way 0.7 cents is less.
  3. Meijer mPerks has 50,000 points with $500 in third party gift cards through August 11.
  4. Kroger stores have a promotion for 4x fuel points on third party gift cards other than Amazon and flexible fuel cards through August 11.

Happy Thursday friends!

The Huntington Bank Business Voice credit card, or MEAB mile valuations? Evidently both.

  1. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, the let’s go with Messi of credit cards, sent new mid-month targeted offers for:

    – $50 statement credit with $750+ online spend
    – $75 statement credit with $1,000+ online spend

    The no-annual fee card remains unavailable for new applicants, and the likelihood of that changing is about the same of the US winning the World Cup this year. Go head and prove me wrong, Citi.
  2. Hyatt and Air Canada Aeroplan have a new partnership, you can link your accounts here. The tl;dr:

    – Aeroplan miles can be redeemed for Hyatt Category 1-4 certificates “starting at” 25,000 miles
    – 50,000 Hyatt points can be redeemed for a 30,000 point Aeroplan reward certificate

    – Aeroplan elites get a 20 night Globalist Hyatt status challenge
    – Aeroplan elites can convert Aeroplan to Hyatt at a 2:1 ratio
    – Hyatt elites will have an Aeroplan status challenge opportunity later this year

    – Hyatt elites get an annual CAD $20 Aeroplan flight credit, which is worth approximately one gallon of milk at current exchange rates
    – Hyatt points transfer to Aeroplan at a less bad, but still bad, 2:1 ratio

    On the positive front, that CAD $20 flight credit can be used to cover taxes on an award ticket, and on the uh-oh front, there’s now a backdoor from American Express to Hyatt.
  3. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 100% transfer bonus to IHG through July 30, bringing the transfer ratio from 1:1 to 1:2, which, like above, is less bad but still bad. On July 31, the bonus drops to 70% through the end of August.
  4. Singapore Airlines has discount business class awards for travel booked this month and flown next month between Los Angeles and Tokyo for 79,800 miles.

    There are lots of economy class discounts too, but uh, yeah.
  5. Meijer mPerks has 10,000 points with $100+ in One4All gift cards, limit 10,000 points per customer through Tuesday. I think this deal signals the end of the “mPerks is great” era, and brings us to the “mPerks is ok” era. Long live Nob Hill I guess?

Happy Thursday friends!

Don’t worry, science has already charted Meijer past and present.

  1. Chase Offers has a widely targeted offer for $100 off of $600+ on Chase Travel bookings through September 30.
  2. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. These work best when you buy in multiples of $600, and apparently based on recent observations, they also work best when you hide them behind other gift cards or inside the gift card rack🙄.

    These are also Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks points with a $500 gift card purchase through July 14. Unfortunately you’re limited to one per account, but fortunately, it turns out through some fluke of unnatural universal laws that it’s possible to have multiple accounts.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Staples.com has fee-free $200 virtual Visa gift cards, limit four per transaction. (Yes, yes, I know it says five but here we are.)

    These are also Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards, RIP those US Bank ones though, amirite?
  5. Lufthansa First partner award space seems to be back, at least on a limited basis.
  6. Alaska Airlines may have reverted to its old behavior of allowing the combination of wallet funds and companion fares on the same ticket, re-allowing gamers to game. Reports suggest that this may have been a one-day reversion or maybe a staggered rollout though, I haven’t seen any reports of anyone doing this successfully.

Happy Monday!

Pouring something out for US Bank gift cards.

Somehow the company that thought buy.com was too hard to remember, Rakuten, was the biggest mover for the holiday weekend:

  1. The RobinHood Gold Visa card issued by Coastal Community Bank did the most RobinHood thing ever: They added 3% foreign transaction fees without notifying anyone. Nice.
  2. The Rakuten Visa card’s online portal +3x rewards cap increased from $7,000 to $10,000 annually, and reportedly the card added a $100 referral bonus which will probably stack with the 1-2 days per month periodic $200 sign-up bonus.

    This card mixed with a Bilt Palladium is an affiliate-revenue free unlock.
  3. The Rakuten portal has an $200 / 20,000 point bonus for being approved for a new Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Visa. The card has a $200 sign-up bonus after $1,000 spend in 90 days, and currently earns 6% back in the first year in several categories, capped at $2,500 spend per quarter.

    The double-double cash-back on Bank of America cards is sadly gone though. (EDITED: applied for -> being approved for, thanks to Jim)
  4. The Rakuten portal has a $100 / 10,000 point bonus for being approved for a new Citi Strata Premier Mastercard. The card’s own bonus is 60,000 ThankYou points after $4,000 spend in three months.
  5. The Rakuten portal also has a triple cash back promotion through July 5th, and includes a few hobbies favorites like: Chase Freedom Unlimited, IHG, Sam’s Club, StubHub, and Viator.
  6. Alaska Airlines has an economy award sale for travel booked by tomorrow and flown between September 1 and November 15. Notable prices:

    – Hawaii: 11,500 miles
    – Seoul: 20,000 miles
    – Amsterdam: 20,000 miles

    If you can book this on Alaska metal, you may find paid upgrades to business class are rather modestly priced.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Slightly less modestly priced.

  1. United has a 25% incoming transfer bonus for hotel points, registration required. The most valuable program for this promotion is Marriott Bonvoy (the first time in recorded history that someone wrote this seriously) which will transfer at a ratio of 1,200:700 when points are moved in 20,000 mile increments.
  2. Qatar Avios has a 30% incoming transfer bonus for Citi ThankYou Points through June 30, which makes the Citi → Qatar transfer ratio 1,000:1,300

    Qatar usually posts bonus Avios within a couple of minutes of transfer, though the terms and conditions say it could take 6-8 weeks. There’s a joke in there.
  3. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, which is unfortunately no longer available for new applicants, sent new beginning of month offers:

    – Make eight purchases of $75+ for a $80 statement credit, once a month through August (total $240)
    – Make five purchases of $75+ for a $65 statement credit, once a month through August (total $195)
    – Earn 1,000 extra ThankYou Points for $500+ purchases, up to two times through June 30

    (Thanks to Shmuel, birt, and Tommy)
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has a 20% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy through June 30, making the transfer ratio 1,000:1,200.

    For those keeping score at home, this is an absolutely terrible value, but there is utility in (1) top-offs and (2) resetting mileage expiration, especially for those without a stash of Ultimate Rewards which still has 55% transfer bonus.
  5. The Incomm gift card sites have fee-free $50+ gift card promo codes:

    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: Mastercards with code DAD26
    – VanillaGift.com: Visas with code VGDAD26
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: Visas, Mastercards, AmExs with code DADSDAY26

    I feel like they’re trying to tell us that something is imminent with their promo code names, but what do I know? Limits on these sites are $10,000 per rolling 24 hours and they won’t earn points or count for a sign-up bonus with American Express cards.
  6. The US Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Senate Committee (USBHUASC I guess?) is exploring the Bilt 2.0 launch uhhh process, and they’re requesting a response by June 9.

    There’s a joke in here too, but I’m definitely not going to be the one to make it. (Thanks to David)

Happy Tuesday friends.

This sentence was said twice (!) before the Bonvoy value sentence was uttered a single time.

  1. AA has stopped releasing space for partner non-stop award redemptions within 144 hours of departure. Workarounds:

    – Hidden city ticketing
    – Use AA miles
    – Book at T-144.01 hours out of spite

    This affects all cabins too.
  2. Bank of America added credit card referral links for some accounts via the mobile app only. Currently first party personal cards are the only options, the referrer gets $100, and each account is limited to five referrals annually.
  3. The Rove shopping and travel portal has a 50% transfer bonus to Turkish Miles&Smiles through June 30. With this transfer bonus, United flights to Hawaii have good pricing again with the program:

    – Economy continental US → Hawaii: 16,667 Rove Miles
    – Business continental US→ Hawaii: 26,667 Rove Miles

    If you don’t yet have a Rove account, use a fellow churner’s referral link and make their day.
  4. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Also, yes, some people got credit line increases on some of their credit cards this weekend and somehow that’s big news elsewhere. Cool, let’s go content monster!

Next up on the content monster: Allan Savory had two views in 1947.

  1. The Barclays JetBlue Premier Mastercard has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 TrueBlue points after $5,000 spend in 90 days, and the $499 annual fee is not waived for the first year. They’ve also made negative changes:

    – 25 Tiles award for status is now at the end of your cardmember year
    – Basic economy tickets no longer get BlueHouse lounge access with this card
    – Companion fare statement credits post after travel is completed

    Strange flex by Barclays the week after they lost their AA card portfolio to Citi, but ok.
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Globe Mastercard, which continues to be the stupidest Citi AA card, has an increased bonus of 90,000 AAdvantage miles after $5,000 spend in four months.
  3. Two airline portals have Mother’s Day shopping bonuses, expect more before Sunday:

    – Alaska Atmos Shopping: 1,200 points for $400+ in spend through May 11
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 2,500 points for $400+ in spend through May 11

    Giftcards.com’s terms and conditions now vary across portals, but none preclude these bonuses.
  4. SoFi Crypto is $120 cash back or 12,000 points at Rakuten for new SoFi Crypto accounts, provided that you buy $30 of crypto. SoFi will also award between $5 and $1,000 of crypto “randomly” for new accounts through June 30.

    SoFi churns are a thing friends.
  5. The AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue program updated its 24-month mileage expiration policy: Now any mileage earned will reset the expiration clock, regardless of source.

Happy Tuesday!

Next SoFi innovation: “randomly” assigned haircuts.